GPT-6.1 Sol vs DeepSeek Flash (4.1)
GPT-6.1 Sol scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (82 vs 70 out of 100). DeepSeek Flash (4.1) is about 7.6× cheaper per blended million tokens ($0.52 vs $4).
| GPT-6.1 Sol · OpenAI | DeepSeek Flash (4.1) · DeepSeek | |
|---|---|---|
| Leaderboard rank | #5 | #9 |
| Score (0–100) | 82 | 70 |
| Tier | Workhorse | Fast and cheap |
| Price per 1M tokens | $2 in · $10 out | $0.30 in · $1.20 out |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Open weights | No | Not verified |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 52 | — |
| Humanity's Sixth Sense (Scale) | 46.6 | — |
| Best for | OpenAI-standardised teams, Agents API and Decisions API, Cost-controlled reasoning | Cheap coding tiers, Bulk generation, Experiments where data residency is not a constraint |
Choose GPT-6.1 Sol if…
- you need openai-standardised teams
- you need agents api and decisions api
- you need cost-controlled reasoning
Near-Astra intelligence at a fifth of the price, which is OpenAI's own line and, for once, the index agrees.
Choose DeepSeek Flash (4.1) if…
- you need cheap coding tiers
- you need bulk generation
- you need experiments where data residency is not a constraint
The reason a thousand people argued on Hacker News this week: frontier-adjacent coding for pocket change, with the caveats you would expect.
Caveats: Open-weights status and licence not verified from a primary source at time of writing. Off-peak and peak pricing differ; the cheap numbers are off-peak. Data handling terms should be read before any enterprise use.
What practitioners say
GPT-6.1 Sol: The launch thread's title did the arguing: 'near-Astra for a fifth of the price' drew 955 comments, most of them about routing.
DeepSeek Flash (4.1): The 'why isn't the industry freaking out' post hit 1,067 points; the most-upvoted replies say the price is real and the coding gap to Opus is also real.
Questions people ask
Which is better, GPT-6.1 Sol or DeepSeek Flash (4.1)?
GPT-6.1 Sol scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (82 vs 70 out of 100). DeepSeek Flash (4.1) is about 7.6× cheaper per blended million tokens ($0.52 vs $4).
When should I choose GPT-6.1 Sol over DeepSeek Flash (4.1)?
Choose GPT-6.1 Sol for openai-standardised teams, agents api and decisions api, cost-controlled reasoning. Near-Astra intelligence at a fifth of the price, which is OpenAI's own line and, for once, the index agrees.
When should I choose DeepSeek Flash (4.1) over GPT-6.1 Sol?
Choose DeepSeek Flash (4.1) for cheap coding tiers, bulk generation, experiments where data residency is not a constraint. The reason a thousand people argued on Hacker News this week: frontier-adjacent coding for pocket change, with the caveats you would expect.
Which is cheaper, GPT-6.1 Sol or DeepSeek Flash (4.1)?
GPT-6.1 Sol costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens on OpenAI's list price (OpenAI API pricing, read Oct 10, 2026). DeepSeek Flash (4.1) costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens on DeepSeek's list price (DeepSeek API pricing, read Oct 10, 2026).
Scores come from the Models at Work leaderboard: Score is 0 to 100: 50% independent evals normalised within this table, 20% price-performance, 15% practitioner sentiment from Signals and community threads, 15% operational fit (context, speed, availability, open weights). Models within three points are a tie in practice. Vendor-published figures are labelled as such and never counted as independent. Prices are vendor list prices where published; blended figures assume three input tokens per output token.